never further from idolatry nor more religious observers of their law than they were then, and that, excepting the crime of the death of Jesus Christ, God, very far from punishing them, would, it seems, rather have loaded them with His blessings.  You know all this, I say; and all this is a convincing proof that the blood of this God-man is virtually fallen upon these sacrilegious men, and that God, in condemning them by their own mouth, altho in spite of Himself, employs that to destroy them which was designed for their salvation.

But, Christians, to speak with the Holy Spirit, this has happened to the Jews only as a figure; it is only the shadow of the fearful curses of which the abuse of the merits and passion of the Son of God must be to us the source and the measure.  I will explain myself.  What do we, my dear hearers, when borne away by the immoderate desires of our hearts to a sin against which our consciences protest?  And what do we, when, possest of the spirit of the world, we resist a grace which solicits us, which presses us to obey God?  Without thinking upon it, and without wishing it, we secretly pronounce the same sentence of death which the Jews pronounced against themselves before Pilate, when they said to him, “His blood be upon us.”  For this grace which we despise is the price of the blood of Jesus Christ, and the sin that we commit is an actual profanation of this very blood.  It is, then, as if we were to say to God:  “Lord, I clearly see what engagement I make, and I know what risk I run, but rather than not satisfy my own desires, I consent that the blood of Thy Son shall fall upon me.  This will be to bear the chastisement of it, but I will indulge my passion; Thou hast a right to draw forth from it a just indignation, but nevertheless I will complete my undertaking.”

Thus we condemn ourselves.  And here, Christians, is one of the essential foundations of this terrible mystery of the eternity of the punishment with which faith threatens us, and against which our reason revolts.  We suppose that we can not have any knowledge of it in this life, and we are not aware, says St. Chrysostom, that we find it completely in the blood of the Savior, or rather in our profanation of it every day.  For this blood, my brethren, adds this holy doctor, is enough to make eternity not less frightful, but less incredible.  And behold the reason:  This blood is of an infinite dignity; it can therefore be avenged only by an infinite punishment.  This blood, if we destroy ourselves, will cry eternally against us at the tribunal of God.  It will eternally excite the wrath of God against us.  This blood, falling upon lost souls, will fix a stain upon them, which shall never be effaced.  Their torments must consequently never end.